Butterfly and Dragonfly classes

Welcome to Year 1 

Year 1 at Moorlands is the children’s first experience of moving from the Early Years Foundation Stage to the National Curriculum. Our Year 1 classes are called Dragonflies and Butterflies.

The transition between EYFS and Year 1 at Moorlands is seamless. We value the importance of learning through play and give the children lots of opportunities to explore through continuous provision. We are fortunate to have a large outdoor space just out the classroom, large and open Year 1 classroom spaces and lots of engaging resources that can inspire learning.

Each day we begin with early morning learning opportunities, which are valuable chances to revisit, recap and consolidate prior learning, as well as a chance to instil a love of calm, quiet reading.

Building on the skills and knowledge that the children developed in EYFS, the children have daily phonics lessons where we learn new sounds, read well-matched phonic books and practise reading new and familiar words.

Writing lessons which are a balance of adult- and child-led learning, again giving the children the opportunity to develop previous skills through whole class learning, group sessions and continuous provision. Maths lessons provide daily opportunities to use a variety of resources, play maths games and learn new number skills.

Whole class stories are a hugely important part of Year 1 and we read stories to the children daily – sometimes several times!

The wider curriculum includes a broad and engaging variety of learning opportunities including PE, Science, Music, Art, History, Geography, RE and Design Technology. We provide lots of hands-on and exciting experiences in Year 1, such as making bird feeders, baking honey cake, writing letters to astronauts and even organising parties to celebrate learning with adults from home!

We are tremendously lucky at Moorlands to have such spectacular and beautiful grounds, which provide a fantastic variety of learning opportunities. As well as using the outdoor spaces to enhance our learning across the curriculum, we have a dedicated Outdoor Learning session each week.

Computing and ‘digital literacy’ (learning how to be safe and responsible online) are an important part of our curriculum and we use iPads and laptops to support this learning. Our curriculum is further enhanced by educational visits, such as to Westonbirt Arboretum, as well as opportunities to learn from visitors to school.

We aim to ensure that your child has a wonderful experience during year one with lots of opportunities for creativity, academic curiosity, teamwork and exploration.